The ninth Zionist congress,
which had taken place in late 1909 / early 1910 in Hamburg, offered a
supporting program consisting of a harbor tour, religious services, and a
gymnastics exhibition by Jewish athletes at the zoological garden's
Ernst-Merck arena, a venue located behind the Dammtor train
station.

The gymnastics exhibition attracted a large
audience and generated great interest among Hamburg’s Jewish
youth to train regularly in a Jewish gymnastics club. Since the existing
Jewish gymnastics club, Hamburg Jewish Gymnasts' Association of 1902
Hamburger Jüdische Turnerschaft von 1902 had
reservations concerning these potential new members due to their supposed
Zionist convictions, a
committee chaired by Hamburg philosopher and political economist Ernst Tuch (1872–1922), who had been a longstanding member of Berlin's Jewish
sports club Bar Kochba, and
Hamburg
chemist and businessman Walter Weigert
(1883–1952) founded a
local chapter of the Berlin Jewish sports club Bar
Kochba in Hamburg on March 14, 1910.